This easy healthy tomato and roasted red pepper soup is ideal for anyone who is trying to lose weight or slimming on a diet aimed at getting rid of belly fat. Suitable as a starter for lunch or dinner, this recipe serves 6 people. Or 4 for lunch with a salad.

I find that the best weight loss recipes need to have a touch of luxury about them and in this recipe we use proper cream. Only use cream from organically sourced grass fed cattle as this adds extra beneficial micro nutrients without the extra chemicals fed to intensively reared cattle. The saturated fat in the cream will not be a problem.

Get a baking tray and line it with parchment or baking paper. Cut the red bell pepper in half lengthways and remove the stalk and seeds. Cut each half into 3 and place on the baking tray. Cut your 10 tomatoes in to halves and add to the tray skin side down. Drizzle over with 2 tablespoons of the extra virgin olive oil and season with a little coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast the pepper and tomatoes for approximately 40 minutes, so that they are well softened but not blackened.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a large stove to pan. Peel and chop the 2 medium sized onions and add them to the pan. We want them to soften but not brown. When the red pepper pieces and the tomatoes are ready, remove the baking tray from the oven and add them to your softened onions in the pan.

Finely chop the garlic and add it to the pan along with the pint of hot water, the Natural unrefined Demerara sugar (any Unrefined sugar is ok) and the smoked paprika. Stir well together and simmer for 20 minutes.

After cooking, leave to cook for a minute and then pour carefully into a food processor or blender and blitz until smooth. Then pass it through a sieve to remove any remaining bits of tomato pip or skin and return to the pan and get it back up to serving temperature.

Serve in bowls or mugs with a swirl of the organic cream on the top.

Enjoy!

The small amount of Unrefined sugar in this recipe will not spike your blood sugar and is included to enhance the natural sweetness in the tomatoes. And the cream – because being on a diet does not have to be boring and bland.